The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has invited bids for the selection of service providers for the procurement, operation, and maintenance of 50 intercity AC electric buses on the gross cost contract (GCC) model with and without demand incentives.

The last date for the submission of online bids is March 27, 2020, and the last date for the submission of hard copies is March 28, 2020.

A total of 50 buses will operate on the Bengaluru-Mysore route, Bengaluru-Shimoga route, Bengaluru-Davangere route, Bengaluru-Chikamagaluru route, Bengaluru-Virajpete route, and Bengaluru-Madikeri route.

The service provider will be required to mobilize, finance, procure, develop the necessary infrastructure, and operate the stage carrier services per the laws governing such operations.

Interested bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹75,00,000 (~$101,294) as the earnest money deposit (EMD)

To take part in the bidding process, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) should be a registered electric bus manufacturer with bus manufacturing facilities in India. The bidders should have manufactured and delivered 50 electric or CNG buses in the last three financial years in India.

Regarding the financial criteria, the bidder should have a minimum average annual sales turnover of ₹1 billion (~$13.5 million) for the last three financial years, and the bidder should have a positive net worth in the last three financial years.

A joint venture or consortium should have one OEM mandatorily, and the other members may be bus operators, aggregators, or financers.

A bidder, if declared the successful bidder, will be required to incorporate a special purpose vehicle (SPV) under the Indian Companies Act, 2013. The SPV office should be registered in Bangalore. A technology partner can bid as a bidder in the capacity of an operator, and the technology partner bidding in the capacity of an operator, individually or as a member of a consortium, will not be entitled to act as a technology partner for any other bidder bidding for the project.

Over the past few months, several states have started moving toward electric mobility, with many states procuring electric buses as a mode of public transport.

Recently, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) invited bids for the procurement and operation & maintenance (O&M) of nine-meter 90 electric buses on the gross cost contract (GCC) model.

Earlier, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) had floated a tender to procure 250 non-AC electric buses under wet-lease on the OPEX model for the zones of Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, and Ernakulam.

Image credit: DKMcLaren / CC BY-SA